Standard Lemma guide

kilowatt

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈkɪ.ləˌwɒt/
  • /ˈkiə.ləˌwɒt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: K IH1 L AH0 W AA2 T Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

One thousand (103) watts, an amount of power large enough to power such things as a typical home appliance (e.g., a microwave oven, a toaster, or a hair dryer). (Consuming 1 kilowatt during a duration of 1 hour consumes 1 kilowatt-hour of energy.)

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Holonyms: MW, megawatt < GW, gigawatt < TW, terawatt < PW, petawatt
  • Meronyms: mW, milliwatt < W, watt

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: mul:kW

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Catachresis for kilowatt-hour.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: informal

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a unit of power equal to 1000 watts

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: kW

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: power unit

History

Etymology

From kilo- + watt.

Across languages

Translations

31 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: quilowatt — one thousand watts
  • Chinese Mandarin: 千瓦 (qiānwǎ) — one thousand watts
  • Czech: kilowatt — one thousand watts
  • Esperanto: kilovato — one thousand watts
  • Estonian: kilovatt — one thousand watts
  • Finnish: kilowatti — one thousand watts
  • French: kilowatt — one thousand watts
  • German: Kilowatt — one thousand watts
  • Hindi: किलोवाट (kilovāṭ) — one thousand watts
  • Icelandic: kílóvatt — one thousand watts
  • Italian: chilowatt — one thousand watts
  • Japanese: キロワット (kirowatto) — one thousand watts
  • Khmer: គីឡូវ៉ាត់ (kiilouvat) — one thousand watts
  • Korean: 킬로와트 (killowateu) — one thousand watts
  • Latvian: kilovats — one thousand watts
  • Lithuanian: kilovãtas — one thousand watts
  • Macedonian: киловат (kilovat) — one thousand watts
  • Portuguese: quilovate — one thousand watts
  • Portuguese: quilovátio — one thousand watts
  • Portuguese: quilowatt — one thousand watts
  • Russian: килова́тт (kilovátt) — one thousand watts
  • Slovak: kilowatt — one thousand watts
  • Spanish: kilovatio — one thousand watts
  • Spanish: kilowatt — one thousand watts
  • Swahili: kilowati — one thousand watts
  • Swedish: kilowatt — one thousand watts
  • Thai: กิโลวัตต์ — one thousand watts
  • Ukrainian: кілова́т (kilovát) — one thousand watts
  • Urdu: کلو واٹ (kilovāṭ) — one thousand watts
  • Urdu: کلواٹ (kilovāṭ) — one thousand watts
  • Zazaki: kilowat — one thousand watts